Army colonel to lecture on Sergeant Alvin York

Everyone loves a great American story, and Southeast Missouri State University's annual Crader Lecture in the Humanities has one for us. The inspiring story of Sergeant Alvin York, a World War I battlefield hero, will be shared with the public at Southeast tonight at 7:30 p.m. in Glenn Auditorium of Dempster Hall. Biographer Colonel Douglas V. Mastriano, PhD, is the 2015 William E. Colby Award winner for his book "Alvin York: A New Biography of the Hero of the Argonne." He will bring his expertise and with it a sense of hope in the midst of pervading negativity many in the nation feel today.

Mastriano is a professor at the U.S. Army War College and an Army colonel.

"It's a compelling story, and Mastriano is suited to deliver it," Wayne Bowen, professor and chair of the history department at Southeast, told the Southeast Missourian recently.

During his lecture, entitled "Sergeant York: The Myths and History of an American Battlefield Hero," he will share the story of an American soldier who risked everything in battle to save his fellow countrymen, a heroic act for which he received the Congressional Medal of Honor.

Speaking at the 2015 Colby Military Writers Symposium, Mastriano shared that York found himself alongside 17 Americans under attack by the Germans, who were spraying machine gun bullets from above. Prior to the attack, York reminded his squad that, based on principle, he was opposed to killing. "But I am willing to die," he vowed. As he beheld "dead and dying Americans," as well as some Germans, however, something kicked in. That something, as Mastriano described it, was "clarity of thought."

"The clarity of thought, I would say, came from the character muscle he had built," Mastriano said. "He knew exactly what to do." This man who was "the last non-commissioned officer alive" -- the man who had vowed not to kill -- "said to himself, 'I have to stop this.'" During today's lecture, Mastriano will detail what it was York did.

York's story is one of conscience, courage and character. Mastriano will provide that story, giving us a historical look at true heroism, with real and human complexity. Thanks to the Crader Family Endowment, it is free and open to the public.